Chris Horner's Team RadioShack diary: Tour of California stage 2

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - Today’s race started off fast and furious as we headed out of Davis,
with riders looking to repeat last year’s race, where a successful
break made it all the way to the finish, to win the stage in Santa
Rosa. Luckily for the field, the break got away within the first
twenty minutes, because with the cross winds that were blowing, the
fighting near the front was pretty intense. The five man break that
got established was made up of domestic teams, so all of the big
European teams were happy to let it go.

Team RadioShack put
two riders on the front right away to control the gap, with J-Mac and
Dmitriy keeping the break in check and making sure that it didn’t get
the twelve minutes that the break got the year before. The middle part
of the stage was similar to yesterday, with steady riding and some
conversation as we cruised through the vineyards of Napa Valley.

But
all of that changed, as the first of two big climbs, hit, and the
action started heating up in the field. When we got to Howell
Mountain, Team RadioShack stayed on the front, riding a steady pace
that kept most of the field intact. It was really at the summit of
Howell Mountain that the action started, since the combination of rain
and slick roads created some excitement. Riders were trying to stay up
front and not crash, all while putting on rain jackets and descending
at over 50 mph.

As we reached the valley below, Team
RadioShack was having drama of its own. We had riders going back for
rain jackets, gloves, and even Levi went back to grab some knee warmers
from the team car to combat the conditions. I dropped back to wait for
Levi as he stopped on the side of the road to put his knee warmers on.
He got his knee warmers on fast, but when he had put his bike down,
the chain had fallen off and gotten sucked up into the frame. After
remounting at the back of the caravan of team cars, it took a big
effort to get Levi back to the front of the group. Luckily Chechu had
come back to help as well, and, with his great form, he did the bulk of
the work, powering both Levi and I back to the front of the group.

We
arrived at the front with less than 2 miles to go before the bottom of
the final pair of climbs, where the team plan for the day was to set a
pace up the climb that would eliminate a good portion of the field, and
set the stage for the battle that will decide the overall winner at the
end of the week. Also, this would help to keep it safe for Levi and
the rest of the team down the descent and through the finishing
circuits in Santa Rosa.

Popo took over from J-Mac and Dmitriy
about 700 meters before the climb started, and immediately had the
field strung out. The Oakville Grade climb was so steep that my rear
tire was actually slipping on the wet road surface! The climb itself
was not very long, but it was enough to do permanent damage to the
field. Popo continued setting a pace that was putting a lot of riders
in the red, shattering the field and leaving only a select group of
riders in the front.

After the summit of Oakville Grade, Jani
took over and was driving the pace hard. There was a small descent
before we started climbing right back up Trinity Grade. This was where
a Columbia rider, I believe it was Mick Rogers but it was hard to tell
with how dirty my glasses were from all of the rain, was having some
drama of his own. He had flatted, but with the team cars stuck back
behind the many groups of riders being dropped, he could only rely on
his teammates in getting a new wheel to keep racing.

Chechu
took over from Jani as we had five RadioShack riders all lined up on
the front. Chechu’s pace further splintered the already diminished
group down to only 15 or 20 riders as we hit the summit of the final
climb. The next difficult element of the race was getting down the
final descent alive, as it had become even more technical, with tight
turns that were now incredibly slippery in the wet conditions. All
five of us made it down to the bottom of the climb without any crashes
or real problems, but the chase groups were having huge issues and
crashes, as they were trying to race down the descent to regain contact
with the front group.

After surviving the descent, Jani,
Checu, and I threw everything we had left into an all out team time
trial to the finish Apparently, the three of us weren’t the only tired
riders in the group, as no attacks materialized from any other teams
going into the finishing circuit. As we came out of the last corner,
what would normally be a mad sprint to the finish was fairly
anticlimactic. With only climbers and GC riders left, everyone was
more focused on avoiding crashes and making it to the line in one piece
than in actually winning the stage! Brett Lancaster who won the stage
must have made a very good pick of wheels to follow, since he had no
teammates left to lead him out and riders were everywhere. He got a
well deserved win after a hard day in the saddle.

After
crossing the line, I was happy to have the hard day finished, and have
a better idea of who will be in the real fight for the overall win at
the end of the Tour of California. Tomorrow should be another exciting
day of racing, so stay tuned!